According to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (1996), “Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are persons or a group of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid effects of armed conflict, situation of generalised violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised State border”. There are more IDPs in the world than refugees.

In June 2012, Cambodia’s prime minister issued an order on land titling that deployed student volunteers to survey and map the country’s territory. Examination of this initiative at the theoretical intersections of mapping, mimicry and govemmentality demonstrates the violent exclusions inherent in cadastral projects that restrict measuring and titling to only “productive” properties. In a field of speculation and local power the initiative dramatically refashioned the land to mimic in advance the expectations of the Map.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this thematic study is to provide a comprehensive overview of land tenure systems in Thailand, with a focus upon the recent development of community land titling (CLT) programmes. It is hoped that the clarification and dissemination of such information will act as a useful point of reference for policy-makers and other related stakeholders around the region. As land systems are formalised, community land titling represents a mechanism to enshrine and protect local ownership and use rights.

Agrarian resistance often occurs as a result of expropriation and dispossession of poor farmers’ land and other properties. This paper examines how cost-benefit rational choice determined the government of Cambodia’s response to poor farmers’ resistance to large-scale land acquisition for an agro-industrial investment. Theoretically, whatever mechanism a government chooses to respond to resistance, the aim is to retain more benefits, especially political legitimacy.

ABSTRACTED FROM CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: In Cambodia, the notion of concession (sambathian) traces back to the French colonial period when concessions were introduced to allow for large scale management and exploitation of forest and fisheries resources and the development of agricultural land under plantations. Since their inception, concessions have been much more than a tool for natural resources management; they also function as a central instrument in power and governance systems. In this chapter we focus on forestry and land concessions.

Environmental governance in the context of climate change and land use is examined with the aim of specifying the conditions under which the incorporation of effective public participation in the governance process can be achieved. This is done through an examination of the preferences of the actors involved, an analysis of the land use issues in climate change governance in Thailand, the extant institutional arrangements for public participation, the difficulties of implementing effective public participation, and possible ways of mitigating these challenges.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: During the critical years following the 2012 land reforms undertaken in the midst of Myanmar’s political transition, Gret conducted an in-depth study combining qualitative and quantitative surveys in nine villages of Bogale and Mawlamyinegyun townships (Delta) and nine villages in Monywa and Yinmabin townships (Dry Zone). The full report and the synthesis are the result of more than two years in-depth research and 13 months of eldwork that involved an inter-disciplinary team of 11 international and Myanmar researchers.

Up to 2.5 billion people hold and use the world’s community lands, yet the tenure rights of women—who comprise more than half the population of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities—are seldom acknowledged or protected by national laws.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Land rights systems in Southeast Asia are in constant flux; they respond to various socioeconomic and political pressures and to changes in statutory and customary law. Over the last decade, Southeast Asia has become one of the hotspots of the global land grab phenomenon, accounting for about 30 percent of transnational land grabs globally. Land grabs by domestic urban elites, the military or government actors are also common in many Southeast Asian countries.

WEBSITE INTRODUCTION: This book examines large-scale land acquisitions, or ‘land grabbing’, with a focus on South-East Asia. Thematic papers and detailed case studies put this phenomenon into specific historical and institutional contexts, analysing transformations in livelihoods, human rights impacts, and potential remedies.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: This report was commissioned under CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+, as part of a research module on multilevel governance and carbon management at the landscape scale. Its purpose is to describe the distribution of powers and responsibilities related to land use, forests, and ecosystem services and, by extension, to REDD+ among the dfferent levels and sectors of the Vietnamese government. To that end it reviews laws dealing explicitly with different sectors that affect land use and decentralization.

During Vietnam’s transition from a socialist to a market economy, household’s property rights over agricultural land were considerably strengthened through a land certification program. This resulted in active formal credit and land markets, either of which potentially affects consumption levels and volatility. This article evaluates the program impact with respect to consumption outcomes. In particular, it identifies the channel of impact through which improved property rights affect consumption volatility.